UN-Arab League peace envoy Kofi Annan speaks to the press upon his arrival in Damascus. Annan said he was "shocked" at the weekend's "tragic events" in the central Syrian town of Houla where the Syrian government used artillery in which at least 108 people were killed. Photograph: Louai Beshara/AFP/Getty Images

Egypt

• The body overseeing Egypt's presidential election has confirmed that June's runoff will be between the Muslim Brotherhood's Mohammed Morsi, and Ahmed Shafiq, Hosni Mubarak's last prime minister. The two candidates came first and second in last week's historic election. The turnout was 46%. The electoral commission denied rumours that police and army recruits were added to the electoral roll. It also said shortcomings in the way the ballot was conducted were not significant enough to alter the result.

Syria

• International envoy Kofi Annan called on "every individual with a gun" in Syria to lay down arms, saying he was horrified by the massacre in Houla. Annan made the comments after arriving in Damascus for talks with senior officials aimed at rescuing his failing peace plan. Annan said he expected to have a "frank" conversation with president Bashar al-Assad tomorrow.

• Activists claim scores of people have been killed in the central city of Hama. Syrian tanks, armoured vehicles, and snipers opened fire on several neighbourhoods of Hama after a series of attacks by rebel Free Syrian Army fighters, opposition sources said.

• Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov has repeated Moscow's objection to western attempts to remove Bashar al-Assad from power. Speaking at a news conference with his UK counterpart William Hague, Lavrov said the priority was ending the violence in Syria which he blamed on both sides. Hague said Annan's plan was the only alternative to a further descent into violent civil war.

Bahrain

• The kingdom's best known political detainee, Abdulhadi al-Khawaja, has announced the end of 110 day hunger strike. His lawyer said al-Khawaja decided to begin eating again because his strike succeeded in bringing attention to the cause of Bahraini protesters agitating for political change.

• Prominent rights activist, Nabeel Rajab, has been released on bail, three weeks after being arrested on charges of inciting protests by using social networking sites. Rajab, president of Bahrain Centre for Human Rights, said he paid bail of 300 dinars (£510) and is banned from travelling abroad as part of the conditions of his release.

Libya

• Mustafa Abdel Jalil, the head of the National Transitional Council, said he expected parliamentary election would be delayed. In an interview with Reuters, he said: "All depends on the appeal process for the election candidates. This appeal process will result in a postponement of the elections."

I am personally shocked and horrified by the tragic incident in Houleh two days ago, which took so many innocent lives, children, women and men. This was an appalling crime, and the Security Council has rightly condemned it.

And I extend my profound condolences and my heartfelt sympathies to the families of the victims and to the wounded – in Houleh and throughout the country.

The Security Council has requested the UN to continue to continue to investigate the attacks on Houleh. Those responsible for these brutal crimes must be held accountable. I understand that the Government is also investigating.

It is the Syrian people, ordinary citizens of this great country, who are paying the highest price in this conflict.

Our goal is to stop this suffering. It must end and it must end now.

I urge the Government to take bold steps to signal that it is serious in its intention to resolve this crisis peacefully, and for everyone involved to help create the right context for a credible political process. And this message of peace is not only for the Government, but for everyone with a gun.

The six-point plan has to be implemented comprehensively. And this is not happening.

I intend to have serious and frank discussions with President Bashar al-Assad. I also look forward to speaking with a range of other people while I am here.

2.21pm:Egypt: A press conference to announce the results of Egypt's presidential election is due to get underway shortly.

There are concerns that confirmation of a runoff between former prime minister Ahmed Shafiq and the Muslim Bortherhood's Mohammed Morsi will spark protests.

Al-Jazeera's Adam Makary tweets:

Security forces have been deployed to protect the State Information building - first time this happens for election results. #SPEC#Egypt

2.12pm:Syria: Shadi Hamid, director of research at the Brookings Doha Centre makes the case for military intervention in Syria.

Speaking on Bloggingheads TV he says a military force should be led by Turkey and Arab countries, backed up by Nato air support.

Hamid claims that diplomatic efforts had failed in Syria.

Diplomacy has never been so exhausted as it is today in Syria. Kofi Annan's mission, while well-intentioned, has been an embarrassing failure. I'm surprised people still talk about it in a serious way. The Syrian regime has made a mockery of this ... talking doesn't work with the Assad regime.

It opens up the possibility, hitherto remote, that Washington and Moscow may find common cause in easing out Bashar al-Assad and defusing the rebellion against the Damascus regime.

Russian spokesmen moved quickly on Monday to suggest events in Houla, where the UN says 116 civilians including dozens of children died in a bombardment by government forces last Friday, were "murky", that regime opponents carried much of the blame for the carnage, and that Russia's opposition to regime change remained steadfast.

But there was no escaping the fact that the unanimous UN statement represented a breach in the diplomatic defences Moscow has erected around the Syrian regime. And it can be assumed with some certainty, given its importance, that Russia's president, Vladimir Putin, will have taken the decision himself.

Sergei Lavrov's public opposition to regime change comes in the face of reported private deals with the US to remove Assad, he notes.

It is now very hard to see any plausible end-scenario in the Syrian crisis that leaves Assad in power.

If he is ultimately forced out as the result of some sort of US-Russian backroom deal, it will be the kind of result that has become typical of Obama's style. Unlike George Bush, Obama does not do conventional wars in other people's countries. He does special forces, drone strikes, covert ops, bribes and assassinations. And deals. If he can pull this off in Syria, it will be a very American coup.

1.45pm:Bahrain: Al-Khawaja's lawyer says his client's hunger strike will because he has managed to draw attention to the issue of imprisoned activists.

Mohammed al-Jishi said a detailed statement by Khawaja was to be issued later.

"Starting this evening he will stop his hunger strike ... the strike has generally achieved its results to shed the light on the case of the detainees in Bahrain," Jishi told Reuters.

12.55pm:Bahrain: The country's most prominent political detainee, Abdulhadi al-Kawaja, has announced he is ending his hunger strike, according to his daughter Maryam.

Abdulhadi Alkhawaja on his 110th day #hungerstrike announces he will stop his hunger strike today #bahrain

Speaking shortly after arriving in Damascus, Annan said he expected to have "serious and frank discussions" with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. The two men are due to meet on Tuesday, according to the Syrian Foreign Ministry.

Annan also called on "every individual with a gun" in Syria to lay down arms, according to AP.

"I am personally shocked and horrified by the tragic incident in Houla two days ago, which took so many innocent lives, children, women and men," Annan said as he arrived in the Syrian capital.

He called on all sides of the conflict to end the bloodshed, saying "this message of peace is not only for the government, but for everyone with a gun."

Syria

• International envoy Kofi Annan has arrived in Damascus for talks aimed at salvaging his wrecked six-point peace plan amid reports of another massacre in Syria. Annan is due to meet President Bashar al-Assad tomorrow.

• Activists claim scores of people have been killed in the central city of Hama. Syrian tanks, armoured vehicles, and snipers opened fire on several neighbourhoods of Hama after a series of attacks by rebel Free Syrian Army fighters, opposition sources said.

• Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov has repeated Moscow's objection to western attempts to remove Bashar al-Assad from power. Speaking at a news conference with his UK counterpart William Hague, Lavrov said the priority was ending the violence in Syria which he blamed on both sides. Hague said Annan's plan was the only alternative to a further descent into violent civil war.

Egypt

• The official results of the first round of the presidential election are to be announced 3pm local time (2pm BST). The Presidential Elections Committee is expected to confirm that the Muslim Brotherhood's Mohammed Morsi secured the most number of votes followed by Hosni Mubarak's last prime minister Ahmed Shafiq.

Bahrain

• Prominent rights activist, Nabeel Rajab, has been released on bail, three weeks after being arrested on charges of inciting protests by using social networking sites. Rajab, president of Bahrain Centre for Human Rights, said he paid bail of 300 dinars (£510) and is banned from travelling abroad as part of the conditions of his release.

Libya

• Mustafa Abdel Jalil, the head of the National Transitional Council, said he expected parliamentary election would be delayed. In an interview with Reuters, he said: "All depends on the appeal process for the election candidates. This appeal process will result in a postponement of the elections."

12.09pm: An opposition activist based in Hama claimed that at least 50 people were killed by government forces in the city.

In a Skype message Rami claimed that Assad's forces stormed the city with armoured vehicles and snipers. He said: "Hama witnessed a true war today. The sounds of explosions did not stop all day, and as a result of the violent and arbitrary shelling, several houses were destroyed with residents still inside. Tens of people were killed and many were injured. Most of those injured have critical injuries."

He also claimed a local businessman, Taha al-Mubeed, who runs a frozen food business, was kidnapped by a shabbiha gang.

Rami claimed that suburbs of Hama were bombarded from dawn this morning.

His account cannot be independently verified.

11.46am:Bahrain: Nabeel Rajab, a prominent human rights activist, who arrested earlier this month charged with inciting protests by using social networking sites, has been released on bail, according to reports.

Nabeel Rajab was arrested on 5 May at Manama's airport, on his return from the Lebanese capital, Beirut. He described his trial as "vindictive" and political.

11.31am: Kofi Annan has arrived in Damascus for talks with Assad and senior figures in his regime.

Annan's spokesman said he would also meet representatives of the opposition and civil society and review the work of UN supervision mission in Syria with the head of the tema Major-General Robert Mood.

10.35am: In their joint press conference Hague and Lavrov made it clear they are sticking to Annan's failing peace plan. Here are they key quotes:

Hague: "We are very much agreed that the Annan plan is the best hope for Syria. At the moment the only hope, for Syria, to try to break the cycle of violence. We are all deeply disturbed by what we have seen at the weekend ...

The alternatives are the Annan plan or ever increasing chaos in Syria, and a dissent closer and closer to all out civil war."

Lavrov: "We are deeply alarmed by what is happening. General Robert Mood confirmed that [in Houla] you can see the traces of artillery fire, as well as discovering a large number of armed groups working in the field. So both sides are responsible for the deaths of innocent civilians ...

We need to have mechanisms in order to implement Kofi Annan's plan."

Hague: "We are not arguing that all violence in Syria is the responsibility of the Assad regime, although it has the primary responsibility for such violence. The implementation of the Annan plan was meant to start with the pulling back of the forces of the regime from populated areas. They have not implemented that plan. We are in an agreement, on the very important point Mr Lavrov just made, about exerting more pressure in order to make sure that the Annan plan is implemented."

Both Hague and Lavrov played down the idea of transition plan for removing Assad from power. The idea was deleted from early draft's of Annan's plan but is being revived by the Obama administration according to the New York Times.

Hague: "We have said all the way back from last August that finding a solution involves him [Assad] standing aside. But the important thing is that the Annan plan is pursued. That is now the urgent priority. There are a variety of ways of doing that, but it certainly involves a political process. The absolutely urgent priority is to have the Annan plan implemented. That plan involves a more plural democratic system being implemented in Syria. Everyone can speculate about what that will mean for President Assad. But the urgent thing now is to try to get such a political process started on whatever terms can be agreed between Kofi Annan, the Assad regime, the relevant opposition forces, that is what we are all united about doing."

Lavrov: "The main thing for us is not about who is in power in Syria. The main thing is stopping any violence, and to create a political dialogue among the Syrian people. Everything else is secondary. If we want to stop violence we have to work together with the regime and the opposition. Kofi Annan's plan is about consensus.

"Russia has particular role in applying pressure. We sense from our contacts that some other forces are not committed [to dialogue]. We support Kofi Annan's plan and they [other countries] should do everything for this to succeed and not to break up this plan. There should no be external interference."

9.49am: Hague and Lavrov were asked whether Assad should stand aside in a Yemen-style agreement, as the Obama administration is pushing for.

Hague stressed the importance of Annan's plan.

Lavrov said the priority was stopping violence. "Everything else is secondary," he said. He said the need for political dialogue in Syria was non-negotiable.

Kofi Annan's plan has to be supported, he said. He suggested that talk of political transition in Syria was undermining the plan. "We sincerely want to implement Kofi Annan's plan," he said.

9.40am: The foreign ministers of Russia and the UK have reiterated their commitment to the Annan plan in Syria, but admitted their differences on the crisis.

Speaking at a joint news conference in Moscow, after holding talks with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, William Hague said the two men agreed that the the Annan plan is the "best and only hope" for a solution.

Hague said the discussions were frank and honesty, and that he Lavrov did not agree on everything.

Lavrov said "both sides" were to blame for the deaths of innocent civilians in Houla. He talked of the need for "mechanisms" to implement Annan's plan.

Hague said the Assad regime was primarily responsible for the violence in Syria, but not all it.

9.15am: China has condemned the "cruel killings" in Houla but has said nothing yet about who was to blame.

Reuters quoted foreign ministry spokesman Liu Weimin as saying:

China feels deeply shocked by the large number of civilian casualties in Houla, and condemns in the strongest terms the cruel killings of ordinary citizens, especially woman and children.

The Syrian army's bombardment of the city of Hama has killed at least 41 people in the past 24 hours, an opposition group in the city said on Monday.

Syrian tanks and infantry fighting vehicles opened fire on several neighbourhoods of Hama on Sunday after a series of attacks by rebel Free Syrian Army fighters on roadblocks and other positions manned by President Bashar al-Assad's forces, opposition sources said.

The dead included five women and eight children, the Hama Revolution Leadership Council said in a statement.

"Tank shelling brought down several buildings. Their inhabitants were pulled out from the rubble and many are in a critical condition," the statement said.

Graphic unverified images purporting to show the bodies of men, women and children killed in the bombardment of Hama have been circulated by activists. [Warning: extremely disturbing images].

The security council condemned in the strongest possible terms the killings, confirmed by United Nations observers, of dozens of men, women and children and the wounding of hundreds more … in attacks that involved a series of government artillery and tank shellings on a residential neighbourhood.

The Annan 'peace' plan — which President Obama still supports — has merely granted the Assad regime more time to execute its military onslaught ...The United States should work with partners to organise and arm Syrian opposition groups so they can defend themselves.

In a few short hours, the town of Houla joined the sorry list of localities whose names have become synonymous with the merciless slaughter of civilians. Srebrenica. Nyarubuye. My Lai. Up to now, the Syrian conflict has killed 13,000 people. But until this weekend, it had yet to include the mass slaughter of nursery-age infants.

"The shelling started around 3pm," said Abu Jaffour. "I was in the fields at the time and we tried to reach the area being bombed. It took us three hours to get there. When I reached the houses it was dreadful. I was carrying babies' bodies that had parts of their heads hanging out."

The regime's strategy is to prevent – at all costs – its armed opponents from seizing and holding territory inside the country, as this might give foreign powers a base from which to operate. As soon as it identifies pockets of armed opponents, it sends in its troops to crush them. That it often uses disproportionate force is not in doubt: this is all too predictable when a conventional army faces hit-and-run opponents. Trapped between opposing forces, civilians inevitably pay the price.

Defectors from Syrian intelligence and security agencies, used by the regime to crush the revolt, claim that Assad's cousin issued shoot-to-kill orders against civilian protesters in Dera'a, the cradle of the insurrection. Kill quotas were reportedly issued to snipers tasked with assassinating pro-democracy activists.

They allege that Assad's brother Maher, a senior army commander, was among senior figures operating out of a secret command centre in Dera'a when orders were issued to contain a protest march by all means necessary.

The outcome in Houla is so horrific that it may turn the stomachs of the remaining Syrians who are on the fence, and produce a new backlash against the regime. The revolution in Syria is a contest of wills between the regime on the one hand, and on the other the revolutionaries (who have a civil and a military wing that seldom agree). The revolutionaries have remained steadfast in the face of massive brutality, for over a year. Their will seems strong. The regime seems to be popular in fewer and fewer places. The will of all but its devoted cadres is being shaken.

About this article

Syria: Kofi Annan arrives in Damascus - Monday 28 May 2012

This article was published on
the Guardian website
at 11.05 EDT on Monday 28 May 2012.
It was last modified at 10.35 EDT on Saturday 4 October 2014.
It was first published at 03.41 EDT on Monday 28 May 2012.